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The CEP blog aims to offer a range of perspectives, experiences, and opinions related to effective philanthropic practice. We welcome submissions that address crucial issues facing individual and institutional donors and are not self-promotional in nature. The views expressed in these posts are not necessarily CEP’s own.
This post originally appeared on LA School Report. There is a growing, and arguably overwhelming, array of ways to measure school performance. Many researchers and policymakers say that we’ve been measuring the wrong things and, in some cases, I think that...
In the few months since I last wrote about 100&Change, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s $100 million dollar prize in pursuit of one good idea, I’ve been thinking a lot about the transparency of its selection process. One of the biggest changes...
Whenever I talk with my foundation peeps about our relationships with grantees, one theme almost always comes up: we funders want our grantees to see us as partners. We want to be Batman and Robin. Bert and Ernie. Han Solo and Chewbacca. That’s a wonderful thought,...
Several years ago, the Medina Foundation, the organization I lead, converted to an online application. About seven months after it launched, one of our grantees called to tell me that it had a pretty serious formatting glitch. This was something we had missed...
A few weeks ago I shared some reflections on the recent annual conference put on by the organization that I lead, the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers. I wrote about how the conference was a milestone in several ways, marking the first time that an event...
For the past few weeks, we’ve been following the Stanford Social Innovation Review’s new blog series, curated by Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, called “Putting Grantees at the Center of Philanthropy.” Including a post today by CEP Vice...
Twice last week I had conversations with leaders from different foundations who described to me their efforts to build “great customer service” for their grantees. It’s actually not an uncommon analogy, and I tend to let it slide. After all, I think it’s important...
As a director on the Assessment and Advisory Services team here at CEP, I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with many regional philanthropy associations, national philanthropy-supporting organizations, and different affinity groups. In fact, through CEP’s advisory...
For the past few weeks, we’ve been following the Stanford Social Innovation Review’s new blog series, curated by Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, called “Putting Grantees at the Center of Philanthropy.” Including a post today by CEP Vice President, Assessment...
This post originally appeared on Medium. Approaching the end of my second year as president of the San Francisco-based Stuart Foundation, which improves life outcomes for children through education, I’d been giving a lot of thought to the overall field of...
This post originally appeared on the blog in January 2015, and is re-posted here as part of our Rewind series. This post was part of a Q&A series on the blog, in which readers can submit questions about foundation effectiveness to be answered by CEP staff. We’d...
This post, written by former CEP Associate Manager, Research, Ramya Gopal, is part of a series looking back at data that CEP has collected on race. It draws on findings from CEP's 2013 report, How Far Have We Come? Foundation CEOs on Progress and Impact. Diversity —...
CEP’s work focuses on what foundations can do to be more effective in their work through their governance, their staff, their operations, and their work with key stakeholders, including grantees and beneficiaries. Our focus in our work is always on foundation...
This post from former CEP Associate Manager, Research, Ramya Gopal originally appeared on the blog in February 2015 and draws from the CEP research report, Hearing from Those We Seek to Help. It is reposted here as part of our Rewind blog series. Nonprofit leaders...
The tides have turned in education philanthropy, as the last decade has seen public opinion shift from indifferent acceptance to critical inquiry. How did this wave come about, and why? This story is told in my new book, Policy Patrons: Philanthropy, Education Reform,...
The following two blog posts by The Heinz Endowment President and CEP Board Chair Grant Oliphant originally appeared on The Heinz Endowments blog in the past 24 hours. More shootings of black men at the hands of police, this time in Baton Rouge and Minneapolis. Words...
This blog post from CEP President Phil Buchanan originally appeared on the CEP blog in July 2015. It is reposted here as part of our Rewind series. A young donor behind a large, new foundation said something that really struck me — and in a good way. It happened...
This post originally appeared on Alliance and on Forbes. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. The vote last month from the UK to leave the EU has stunned people around the world, leaving the world’s press, and much of the UK itself,...
“In a year that saw political polarization and strife, we were also reminded, in 2015, that progress and positive change happens.Marriage equality became a reality and, when you look closely, it turns out that effective foundations were instrumental players in this...
Recently, I’ve been sharing some “a-ha moments” and takeaways that I’ve had as CEP staff have embarked on learning together from the book Thanks for the Feedback: the Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well by Sheila Heen and Doug Stone (the latter of whom will be...